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FinePrint Literary Management

TereLiz

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I'll be damned. I received an R from Colleen on Sunday. She must be the hardest working lady in the biz!

If I didn't just have a huge lunch I'd eat my words. ;)

Thanks, Colleen.
 

rtrgirl

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Well, good for you, rtrgirl. Let us know if The Shark has any human qualities when she actually reads an ms!

[Note to Janet Reid: Just kidding. Seriously. We love you. :)]


Back to report on the Shark's human qualities:

Received my R yesterday. Took 3 weeks. Short and painless (other than the R). She kindly stated what she liked and her reasons for passing which is appreciated.

However; the Shark must have super-human reading skills with laser eyesight to be able to read as much as she does. I guess I'd have to meet her in person to know if she really is... human.
 

EASchechter

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Update on my manuscript.

Colleen Lindsay has had my manuscript since April. Last week, I received a nice note apologizing for the long delay and promising an answer by early December. Today I woke up to a pass, with some very specific reasons as to why she was passing (including pointing out that the premise is similar to a book that came out last year that I hadn't heard of). She invited me to query with her when she reopens in January. I won't have anything READY for her then, but I'll definitely be sending the next novel to her first!
 

nash

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11/11 w/ partial
12/8 rejection (SuzieT)
 

Eris

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As I posted earlier, I queried Meredith Hays back in April I think it was, because I thought she would really like my work, but I never heard back. I sent two follow-up e-mails over this time to ask if she had received it but never heard a peep. :( I'm 99% sure I sent a SASE - is it unreasonable for me to expect my proposal back? I kinda wonder where it ended up.
 

Colleen Lindsay

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Reopening to queries and revised submission guidelines:

Just a heads up:

As of today, I've reopened to all queries again and I've substantially revised my submission guidelines. Click here to read. (And remember that I still don't accept paper queries.)

Best,

Colleen

 

rebobinar

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FYI - I got a rejection from Janet Reid today saying she's no longer taking on YA.

So, I wanted to pass that on to you all and also wondered if you think that means it's ok to query another agent at Fine Print?
 

Sage

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Cheering you all on!
FinePrint lets you query multiple agents at their agency. According to Janet Reid, at the same time.
 

Rowan

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FYI - I got a rejection from Janet Reid today saying she's no longer taking on YA.

So, I wanted to pass that on to you all and also wondered if you think that means it's ok to query another agent at Fine Print?

Note - from agent Colleen Lindsay's blog (posted above) :):
If I pass on your query, it's not a value judgment on you or your work. It simply means that the book isn't right for me. Feel free to query one of the other agents at FinePrint. Just because your book isn't a fit for me doesn't mean it might not be a good fit for one of my colleagues.
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2007/01/submission-guidelines.html
 

Rowan

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Wow, Colleen is FAST! She responded to my query within the hour and while not a request :( -- gave me some excellent advice.

Thank you, Colleen! :)
 

houndrat

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Woot! So excited that you reopened for submissions, Colleen! We love you on #askagent.

Now, if I can just finish polishing up this pesky YA novel this month, as planned. :)

Cheers!
 

Roly

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Edit forget it, I emailed her instead :)

Also: YAY FIRST REJECTION!! Automated response within two minutes of sending because my word count was too high. I'm not 100% sure it's a rejection of course because it didn't actually say that, but I'm pretty sure it is. Still, what's a warrior without battle scars? :D

I've heard of YA fantasy novels exceeding 120K, like Cassandra Clare's City of Bones which was a bit over 130K, but I really did try to bring it down. The first draft was 160K and I got it down to 127K. Still too high, though I was hoping some agents might still look at it.

Oh well, I'll see how this batch goes and if I get the same responses, I'll start chopping plot lines :)

Thanks Colleen!
 
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AryaT92

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He took 5 months to request a partial from me. So no.

Asked me for a full, took him 17 minutes after I queried him.

Colleen rejected me without asking for anything :D

My advice is to send your queries at times of the day where they will check your email and it won't be dragged to the bottom.
 
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brimfire

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Roly: You got an auto-reject because of word count? Like, the email you received back was automatically sent? Was this from WeBook or from an agent directly?
 

AryaT92

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You WILL get an auto-rejection unless you make the emails to Colleen subjected : "FINEPRINT QUERY"
 

Roly

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I put FINEPRINT QUERY in the subject line, so that wasn't the issue.

Yeah, it actually specifically stated that it was an automated response I was receiving because my word count was either far too low or far too high. Then there was a link to a blog post Colleen made discussing word count: http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

It didn't say anything about a rejection so a tiny bit of me still holds out hope, but I mean even if it is an insta-reject, I'm okay with that. Again, it's all a learning experience :)

Edit: And yes brimfire it was all through email, sent from Colleen's address. I didn't use Webook.
 
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Shady Lane

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Just because I don't know if I've said it lately (or at all??)--I'm repped by Brendan Deneen. He is a saint. That is all.
 

Rowan

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I put FINEPRINT QUERY in the subject line, so that wasn't the issue.

Yeah, it actually specifically stated that it was an automated response I was receiving because my word count was either far too low or far too high. Then there was a link to a blog post Colleen made discussing word count: http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

It didn't say anything about a rejection so a tiny bit of me still holds out hope, but I mean even if it is an insta-reject, I'm okay with that. Again, it's all a learning experience :)

Edit: And yes brimfire it was all through email, sent from Colleen's address. I didn't use Webook.

She tweeted about it too---re: her Monday queries and "word count abuse". :)
 

honeysock

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Colleen tweeted this yesterday:
"Just requested my first manuscript of 2010, mainstream YA humor. Great query and a little bit quirky. Nice job!"

Could that have been anyone here? And if so, would you share the query?????
 

Roly

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She tweeted about it too---re: her Monday queries and "word count abuse". :)

lol nooo abuse? Actually, I've heard of some people submitting manuscripts of over 200K. Must be annoying to see such high counts day after day. It's just cool to see how different agents look at the issue!
 

Rowan

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lol nooo abuse? Actually, I've heard of some people submitting manuscripts of over 200K. Must be annoying to see such high counts day after day. It's just cool to see how different agents look at the issue!

LOL, yep -- her exact quote was :):

RT for Monday peeps: Seeing lots of word count abuse in queries. Time for a refresher course on word counts for fiction: http://bit.ly/fxWsM 9:03 AM Jan 4th from web
Follow her at: http://twitter.com/ColleenLindsay
 

Lindzy1954

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Hi guys, no clue who Colleen tweeted about but I would love to see the query too! No matter how much I tweak mine, it just never seems to satisfy. Anyone else have a MS out to Diane Freed? She requested mine about a week ago so now is the waiting period. She seems very nice. . . anyone else with personal experience with her?

Sam Robbens, Hero-in-Training Book 1 "X-Ray Vision and Hamster Handshakes" complete at 3600 words
Sam Robbens, Hero-in-Training Book 2 "Mind Power and Super Poopers" complete and unedited 5,000 words